Mixing Midi Piano with Digital Computer Tracks

  • Thread starter Thread starter stevebusch
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stevebusch

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Can anybody direct me to a discussion about mixers. I'm new to this forum and I've just hooked up my Technics PR700 piano to Cakewalk 8.

I'd like to mix the 1/8" stereo line out from the digitized computer tracks with the (2) 1/4" left and right line output signals from the piano.

I believe I'll need an (inexpensive???) mixer with preamps and faders that will eventually output to a tape, which I will then digitize back into the computer and burn to CD. I know this process will degrade the quality but without a DAT tape I don't know how to mix the computer with the great sounds on my piano.

I welcome any suggestions, but I'm doing this for fun so money will be an issue.

Thanks in advance!
 
Both the output from the piano and the PC are at line level- right? So why would you need more pre-amps? Better pre-amps, maybe, but they cost some money and this is as you say, "an issue."
Record the MIDI piano to the PC, then use the multitracking capability of CW to mix inside the PC. Then burn the .wav files produced direct to CD without ever leaving the PC.
Why go back and forth between analog and digital when you don't have to do this?
You may have read of some hi-end studios doing this (sort of) but then they've got a high speed 2" tape machine and pricey A/D converters- you don't.
 
If I'm playing a composition from cakewalk including digital tracks and midi tracks, will I be able to record the midi tracks into digital at the same time? I know I can play and record digital signals at the same time, but didn't know if cakewalk could send midi out and record the result as a digital track in one go.

Anyway, I'm having enough trouble trying to configure my piano to record anything other than piano tracks. I'll look for a related thread, but I would love to find somebody who has a similar Piano (Technics PR700)and get some advice.

Thanks
 
Thanks!

I'll give that a try. What if I have more than one midi device (piano, synth, sampler)? I thought about getting a Mackie 1202 for initial mike input into the computer, but maybe I could use it to mix down multiple midi instruments before going back to the Sound card's line input. What do you think?
Thank you again.
Steve
 
Sorry, I just reread the link you pointed to and it clearly answers my question.
 
Alchuck,

I tried recording from the midi piano back into cakewalk as a digital audio file, but the computer stammered a bit and produce a recording with fluctuations and delays. I'm using a single Pentium III with 256mb ram, soon to upgrade to two PIII's and 768mb ram, will this help or should I be asking questions in the cakewalk forum about allocating scratch disk space.

Help!!!

Steve
 
steve,

Wow! With a Pentium III? I'm doing better than that with my lowly Pentium 200 MHz and 64 MB. Something must be out of whack. What kind of hard drive are you recording to? Has it been defragmented lately? Is bus mastering turned off, or is it in MS/DOS compatibility mode? Maybe the soundcard settings aren't optimized. There's a lot of info on the Cakewalk website, and a whole chapter in the Cakewalk 9 manual on improving audio performance. I would start going through the list of possibilities and see what happens. Good luck!
 
This could aslo be a soundcard problem...what do you have?

If it's built into the motherboard or something like a cheapo version of an SB16 then you might have problems!

matt
 
The sound card is Creative Ensoniq PCI
It seems to work pretty well until I try to record from the piano back into the computer. Maybe I need to defrag. I hope the additional ram and processor I put in will also help.
How much disk space is recommended for digital recording?
Steve
 
I don't mean to be impatient, but I hope somebody has an idea of what I could do to fix this mixdown problem. I'm going to try to record some stuff this weekend.

I tried changing the cakewalk timing settings but only two of them worked producing the stammered version I described earlier, and a wavery version where the pitch wiggles up and down.

Thanks for your help.
Steve
 
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